Kanji where to start
I received a question about kanji and they said I could post a public response.
How do I start?
The best way to start learning Kanji (in my opinion) is to learn the Kanji radicals first. Radicals make up other kanji and even though the combinations don’t always make sense, knowing the radicals gives you a solid foundation to help you remember complex Kanji.
Why are there different readings?
Read this article
I think that this post explains it best, but if that’s not helpful here’s my take:
The on’yomi is closer to the original Chinese language and is mostly used for nouns.
The kun’yomi reading is used to show the traditional Japanese pronunciation. It is most frequently used when kanji appear in adjectives or verbs.
two or more kanji together is typically on’yomi
kanji followed by hiragana is kun’yomi
How do I know which words are read with which reading?
Build up your verbal and listening comprehension. If you understand how words sound when you see them written you will understand the context which gives clues to the correct pronunciation.
When in doubt use a dictionary with audio pronunciation of both on’yomi and kun’yomi for each kanji like this one
Realize that English has similar words such as read/read, minute/minute. How do you know which one to use when you speak or write? It’s not intuition. Similar to the rules for kanji, the position of the word dictates how it’s pronounced. I already read that. Read it now. I’ll be there in a minute. After all, it was so minute I forgot it was there.
Do I learn the reading first or just learn the words straight away?
Really that's up to you, but I think knowing the common readings of a select amount of kanji will probably help you as you start combining kanji into more complex words.
How do I learn readings when there are so many?
This is another plus to my favorite Japanese language app Kanji Study. Really everyone should buy the full unlocked version because it really helps with vocabulary. As you can see from the pictures below, it provides you with not only the kanji, all the readings, but also words that have that kanji and the different readings. It provides multiple ways to test including writing. I have the unlocked app so I set up custom lists of no more than 50 words to learn, and I group them by how well I remember each kanji. Learning in chunks is the best way to build consistent, and solid understanding of the kanji.
My full app review plus links
